


Into the Lake

by Onehelluvapilot



Category: Merlin (TV), Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Drift feels, F/M, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), M/M, The Drift (Pacific Rim), the author loves Lancelot too much for their own good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 01:19:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13823439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehelluvapilot/pseuds/Onehelluvapilot
Summary: Just a Pacific Rim Merlin crossover drabble.





	Into the Lake

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Annals of the War](https://archiveofourown.org/works/941122) by [RurouniHime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RurouniHime/pseuds/RurouniHime). 



> I just made it happier by taking away most of the important stuff.

Lady of the Lake came back battered, but it came back, so that was cause for celebration. Her right arm was scored with gashes and bite marks, some of which cut nearly to the core of the limbs, the bones. Several fingers on both hands had been crushed against the Kaiju’s skull, and her left ankle was badly twisted from where she tripped on a school bus. But her pilots were alright, mostly. Lancelot and Guinevere staggered out of their Jaeger, still caught in the throes of an adrenaline rush. The residual pain of broken fingers didn’t interfere with their triumphant hand holding. They didn’t go to medical, more because they didn't want to than didn't need to, and instead got dragged to a party.

There were a lot of parties in the Shatterdome, and the people who worked there had quickly learned how to do them right. The kitchen made industrial strength cupcakes, the tablecloths were dragged out of the closet they were never packed too deeply into, and people pulled out their hats, beads, and boas from the shoeboxes in their rooms beside their black ties and solemn hairpins. The only things organized faster than the parties were the funerals.

Arthur clamped a hand down on each Gwen and Lance’s shoulders, squeezing in between them despite their clasped hands. That was so him. Laying claim so casually on his point man and the woman he only partially jokingly called his queen. Merlin gave him a look that you didn’t need to get inside his head to understand perfectly. Being the Marshall’s son had given Arthur an ego he didn’t need. It didn’t help that as a star pilot, people basically treated him like a prince.

Lance winced as the other pilot’s strong hand glanced down onto his sore shoulder. Unlike earlier Jaeger models, Lady of the Lake didn’t short out and fry her pilots when she was damaged, but she did let them know with a bit of a shock, and the pain tended to linger, even though there were no real injuries. The two pilots sat down quickly, in unison, to take the weight off their aching ankles. Sharing pain with someone was almost as good as drifting, though they were both unhappy that the other was hurting, and even though they were surrounded by people it still half felt like they were in a little bubble all of their own.

The Knights had their own table, the round one at the front of the mess hall, like usual. Leon was pouring champagne for everyone. The conquering Jaeger pilots won the honor of choosing the drinks. Lady went with champagne or wine, Arthur and Merlin usually just chose beer when Excalibur had gone out, and for Gwaine, brandy. The rowdiest of the pilots couldn’t calm down after a fight until he’d drunk himself under the table. Sometimes Leon got caught up in it too, through the drift, though he was usually the ice to his copilot’s fire. When they were both like that, it drove the rest of them to drinking too.

Gwen and Lancelot both held their champagne flutes delicately between fingers that still felt mangled as they listened to other people toast their victory. They didn't love to be the center of attention. They didn't do it for the fame or the thrill. They did it to help, to protect people, and afterwards all they wanted to do was sleep it off and get ready to do it again. None of the knights were offended when they slipped off after a minimal amount of partying.

Lying in their shared bunk, curled tight around one another with Gwen’s curly hair brushing Lancelot’s lips and his arm holding the small of her back, they don't talk. They don't need to. All they need is to touch and it's like they're still in the drift. Each other's memories and memories of one another swirl about in their heads. When Lance was ten and Kaiju killed his family. Gwen stepping into a Shatterdome for the first time with her father the welder. Fighting each other with bo staves. Drifting with him, kissing her. Meeting Lady of the Lake for the first time. Their fights, more in order of memorability than chronological order. Working side by side with the other Knights of the Shatterdome, including Gwen’s brother Elyan and his partner Percival. The siblings were a bit of an oddity, as they were both incredible fighters but didn't work best with each other. Lancelot’s story was a more typical one persistence and valour. That time when they'd fought a dragon stood out heavily in both of their minds. All of this together told a nice fairy tale to lull them to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Love kudos, live for comments.


End file.
